This invention is related to the area of portable liquid dispensers and the heating or cooling thereof.
Portable liquid dispensers, such as drink dispensers or sports coolers are used in a number of applications including sporting events, construction sites and other areas where drinking fluids provide relief from physical activity. Such dispensers can be found on sidelines of sporting events or rigidly mounted to the back of trucks or other heavy equipment around construction or other labor sites. Such dispensers are typically round and have a nozzle at the bottom of a side wall for dispensing up to five or ten or more gallons of refreshing drink such as Gatorade or other fluid.
Such dispensers have several disadvantages. In order to provide for a cool drink, ice is added to the fluid. Since ice floats to the top, the fluid at the bottom of the container is not well cooled. Furthermore, as the ice melts, the fluid is diluted thereby changing the flavor and reducing any medicinal effect resulting from the drink. Furthermore, it is often necessary to tip the dispenser in order to dispense the last of the remaining fluid from the nozzle of the dispenser. The requirement of tipping the dispenser makes it impractical to stack or rigidly mount liquid dispensers. Thus, what is needed is a solution to the aforementioned problems.